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Ch. XII THE CRUSADE OF FREDERICK II 451 
Frederick publicly read his will to a huge outdoor assembly. During his absence
in Syria, Reginald of Spoleto was to serve as regent. If Frederick should
die, his son by Constance, Henry, the king of the Romans, was to be his heir;
second in line was the newly born infant Conrad, son of Isabel and so heir
to Jerusalem. The nobles present swore to uphold these terms and to secure
similar oaths from their vassals.81 
 On June 28, 1228, the emperor with forty ships set sail from Brindisi for
Syria. Although Gregory IX, deeply chagrined at Frederick's obstinate determination,
said of his departure that he went "without anyone's knowing for certain
whither he sailed," actually we are exceptionally well informed by the eye-witness
account of a fellow passenger concerning the day-to-day voyage. First pausing
at Otranto, the fleet sailed by Corfu, Cephalonia, Crete, and Rhodes, and
finally on July 2 1 entered the harbor of Limassol in Cyprus,82 where Frederick
was met by the marshal Richard Filangieri, who had sailed during the previous
April with a considerable part of the army. 
 On Cyprus he spent five weeks, quarreling with John of Ibelin, lord of Beirut,
regent for the young king. John bravely defied Frederick's demand for Beirut
and for money, as illegal.83 Though the episode led to tension, king Henry
and John of Ibelin and many Cypriote barons accompanied Frederick when he
sailed for Acre on September 2, 1228. 
 On September 7 they arrived in the port of Acre, where Frederick was received
with much ceremony by the Templars and the Hospitallers, as well as the clergy,
although he was denied the kiss of peace because of the ban.84 Thus the shadow
of Gregory's hatred darkened the path of the emperor. To show his Syrian
subjects his own good-will in the matter, Frederick yielded to the pressure
to make overtures to the pope, and sent to Rome the admiral Henry of Malta
and archbishop Marino Filangieri of Bari to announce his arrival in Syria
and to request absolution, naming duke Reginald of Spoleto, his regent in
Sicily, as minister pleni potentiary to negotiate with the pope. The papal
decision, however, had already been made. Upon Frederick's departure from
Brindisi, Gregory had notified the patriarch of Jerusalem and the masters
of 
 81 Richard of San Germano (MGH, SS., XIX), pp. 349—350. 
 82 Breve chronicon de rebus Siculis, in Huillard-Bréholles, I, part
2, 898 ff. 
 83 See below, chapter XV, pp. 543—544. 
 84 Roger of Wendover, Flores historiarum, II, 351: "non ei communicaverunt
in osculo neque in mensa